


Remember me (though I have to say goodbye)

by Deeambles



Series: Keep our love alive, I'll never fade away [1]
Category: Coco (2017), Naruto
Genre: Gen, naruto characters basically with themes of Coco, pretty fun to write ngl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 09:04:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16531535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deeambles/pseuds/Deeambles
Summary: They all stay as one by one the Uchiha appear, a clan of four hundred, stand in the land of the dead together. Some disappear as they appear moving on with no one to remember them.A seven-year-old, Sasuke, he learns later, cannot remember everyone.Itachi, probably never bothered.





	Remember me (though I have to say goodbye)

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from, "Remember me", from the Coco soundtrack.

Tajima just wants to see his son. 

Not his youngest, his three that left too early, oh no, they are here with him. Not his second oldest, because Izuna is here too. 

But is eldest, his heir, his firstborn. Madara. 

It’s been years, and every time he walks over the flower bridge he hopes. 

It’s strange, because when he was alive he never allowed himself that much. The foolishness of hope. 

Now he sees that as a mistake. 

Every time he walks the bridge to the Uchiha district and sees himself on the shrine. Every time he walks and see the dream that his eldest brought to life with that silly Senju boy. 

Konoha, a village built on hopes and dreams. 

It’s not bad. 

But his eldest hasn’t crossed over and it’s been years. Which means he’s alive but he’s not here. He certainly hasn’t been forgotten, his name written in textbooks, a giant statue where he fought to his death. Well, his supposed death. Every dead Uchiha knows that wasn’t really the case but the question still stands as to where he is. 

Izuna, by his side every time he crosses that bridge, looks too. It kills something in Tajima every time Izuna looks and doesn’t see Madara. He resists the urge to snap at him to stop day dreaming. Something in him that knows that Madara is out there but it’s not the older brother Izuna is hoping to see, to ask for forgiveness from.

Izuna was angry those first years and didn’t cross when it was Madara setting up the shrine every year. 

The urge to ask what Izuna expected, to say he shouldn’t have wasted his chance, sits on the edge of his tongue like a botched katon jutsu. 

He doesn’t snap, it would be too much like when he was living, and no one needs that reminder right now. 

He looks forward, to the petals scattered all around, the offerings left on the shrines, to the music in the air. Uchiha, dead and alive, dance like nobody is watching. A little boy with orange goggles shoots past him to help an old lady, his grandmother, Tajima thinks, with fixing a fallen decoration. 

It’s beautiful, just like it is every year, and Tajima has never been happier to see the flowers, candles, and shochu left out. After all the horrors he saw and gave, it’s a blessing. It’s love. 

He just hopes that wherever Madara has gone, that he to can feel it too. 

/../

The next year he crosses, the little boy with orange goggles has a picture on the family shrine. 

All the Uchiha who crossed the bridge with Tajima stare. 

The same feeling he used to get whenever Butsuma was going to try something new on the battlefield sinks in his gut. It’s the feeling of knowing something without actually knowing. 

The little boy, Obito, never left the land of living, they would have known the second he ended up in the land of the dead. 

It makes the undead dead Uchiha count to two. 

It’s almost useless information. He can’t affect anything. He asks the spirit animals that help guide the Uchiha anyways. 

They have yet to find his eldest, and shake their heads when he asks about Obito. 

He pretends that the feeling in his gut that kept him alive all those years isn’t burning as hot as amaterasu. 

He’s dead, he can’t do anything about it anyways. 

/../

When Madara finally decides to show up he’s old. Tajima stands on the bridge, looking at his eldest with his hair completely grey, and wrinkles to match those deep eye bags. 

Tajima extends a hand, it’s a peace offering, at the least. At best, it’s a plea to come home. Izuna waits on the other side, just out of sight from where Madara stands. 

Madara looks at Tajima, looks past him, and then shakes his head. 

Tajima wants to laugh because the one thing he drilled into Madara’s head when he was young was that once you’re dead, you’re dead. 

But then Madara honest to kami turns and disappears, as if the land of the dead wasn’t good enough so he just decided to go back.

Tajima doesn’t actually think this, but maybe a limbo somewhere. Somehow. 

He resists the urge to rolls his eyes because he should have guessed, really. His eldest was always his problem child. 

/../

 

He’s lost track of the years. But when Tajima crosses the flower petal bridge this year he knows something is wrong. The Uchiha are not in the district they should be. It’s smaller, even if structurally the same. It seems more oppressive and he can see the walls of Konoha clearly where he couldn’t before.

There’s less dancing among the living Uchiha. Not that there isn’t dancing, but when the children aren’t looking, the adults are praying. For a miracle, for a blessing, for anything. 

There are shadows lurking. His gut is on fire. 

/../

The day of the dead is approaching but the second Uchiha Fugaku and Mikoto appear he knows it won’t matter. 

Uchiha Shisui was just ahead of them and even though the boy had faith, Tajima is a war general and he knows how these things work. 

As new Uchiha appear, the old generations fade with no one left in the living to speak of them and remember. 

He waits, he knows he’ll disappear soon. 

But he remains. 

Him, his sons, his wife. 

Uchiha Obito’s grandmother. 

They all stay as one by one the Uchiha appear, a clan of four hundred, stand in the land of the dead together. Some disappear as they appear moving on with no one to remember them. 

A seven-year-old, Sasuke, he learns later, cannot remember everyone. 

Itachi, probably never bothered. 

Although, some of the Uchiha that appeared say it wasn’t him. Say it was a man in an orange mask. Others say it was cloaked people, like Anbu, but with blank masks. 

Shisui looks like he wants to cry. 

If Tajima had a gut to puke from, he thinks he would have done it. 

/../

It’s been years since the bridge has been open to any Uchiha. Sasuke, in the beginning opened it a few times but now that he’s older, his path has changed. 

More Uchiha disappear as Sasuke grows. Anyone who Itachi didn’t know well leave as well. 

Tajima, for whatever ungodly reason, remains. 

Mikoto asked once. He didn’t bother to hide the truth. The dead had no such place for lies. 

He doesn’t tell her about the gut feeling though. He doesn’t have to tell Izuna, or his wife. They both had people they fought to the death with and likely felt it, if didn’t acknowledge it. 

He doesn’t think Madara is in the living really, but whatever Limbo he’s in must count for something. 

/../

It’s cruel fate this way. Uchiha Madara, his eldest, his heir, his first-born stands on the bridge once again before him. He’s young, not a child, but an adult like Tajima himself. His eyes wide, like when he was a child hoping for some validation from his father. 

He can feel himself disappearing. No one left in the living world to remember him. He can see his youngest sons disappearing, his wife, but not Izuna. Madara must have spoken of him and someone remembered. 

That or some of the previous Senju are still alive, brought back with that ungodly jutsu. 

He doesn’t really have anything to say to his son. The choices he made are his own, and Tajima was never a good father, if a decent leader. 

He settles for a crooked smile and a hand on Madara’s shoulder. His wife, oh his beautiful wife, lays her hand in his other shoulder. It’s a threat more than anything, she doesn’t forgive her son, but she can’t do much till they meet again. 

Disappearing doesn’t feel so bad. Like drifting into the wind, a silent agreement with the universe to join in its circle. He leans into it and becomes the wind, the sky, the air. 

 

 

Uchiha Madara watches as his father, mother, and three youngest siblings break apart to become the petals on the bridge. 

Izuna stands on the other side. 

His little brother steps forward. Madara hopes he’s going to get a hug out of this, he’s so unbelievably tired. 

Izuna smiles, “Welcome home anija.” Before Madara can even respond, Izuna rears back and punches him off the bridge, into the water below. 

He surfaces, and looks up where he can see Izuna cheerfully waving, the little shit. Madara thinks he might deserve that one. 

He hopes Hashirama shows his noble ass up soon, because he’s definitely cashing in that drink.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, guess who watched Coco for the first time (it was so cute please watch if you haven't).
> 
> I twisted a few elements to make the story work, also, I cant believe we never have Izuna decking Madara's ass in the pure land. Like please, if my sibling tried to destroy the world in my name b/c of an unrequited crush/UST/ and they didn't win an election, I would dump them on their ass lbr. 
> 
> On a side note, I am totally one day planning to write a short snippet of Obito finally appearing and his reunion with his grandmother. 
> 
> As always, I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
